High school football: Powerful ground game lifts Uintah over Lehi

LEHI - Colby Murray's final offensive play did more than let him top 100 yards in the Uintah game at Lehi, it also tacked on an extra touchdown for his team, a 67-yard touchdown to be precise, giving the Utes a 35-7 victory over the Pioneers.

Murray had 93 yards going into the play on 14 carries, and his coach decided to give him just one more chance to try for the 100-yard game in the fourth quarter before taking the team captain out for the rest of the contest. Murray made the most of his final opportunity.

He broke open the 67-yard run for the Utes' fifth touchdown of the contest, giving them the final margin of victory and himself a 160-yard first game of the season in the process.

"We knew Colby was close to 100 yards, and we decided to give him one more play, and he broke it for the touchdown. He's a hard-working team captain who has turned into a great leader, and he's one of the big reasons we had great success tonight," said Uintah coach Doug Harding.

Murray's big running plays were a huge part of Uintah's 391 yards total offense.

But it wasn't entirely an offensive production for Uintah. The Utes also succeeded in holding the Pioneers to a total of three first downs in the first half, two of those coming on the final drive before halftime. They also held Lehi to 252 yards in the game and held onto the ball for a total of eight more minutes, including a huge amount of time in the dominant first half in which the Utes outscored the Pioneers 21-0.

"We really just went back to basics on defense and worked on fundamentals. This was a good win early and will help the kids have confidence and believe in the system and what we do," said Harding, whose team was playing without team captain Kalen Williams, who was lost in practice on Wednesday and will be out for four more weeks. Another varsity starter, Brad Reynolds, was also out because of a practice injury and is expected to miss two more weeks.

The Utes' first score came on a five-yard touchdown run by Murray just over three minutes into the game. They tacked on a second on a four-yard run by Jarin Daggett seconds into the second quarter. Their third touchdown of the first half came on a Kalin Leyba quarterback keeper for two yards with 44.5 seconds remaining in the second quarter and gave the Utes what appeared to be an insurmountable 21-0 lead.

Though neither team scored in the third quarter, the Utes put themselves into position to add on their fourth touchdown for the 28-0 lead on an eight-yard pass from Leyba to Darek Reasch less than a minute into the fourth period.

But the shutout was not to be as the Pioneers changed quarterbacks in the fourth and went with sophomore Kinloch Gray, who led the Pioneers down the field with four first downs and a handoff to Jacob Benson, who ran up the middle for five yards and the only Lehi touchdown of the contest.

The scoring finished on Murray's run for the Utes, and Tanner Seitz completed his own perfect game by kicking in the fifth of five extra point tries in the game.